Dell NHW94 X520-DA2 2-Ports SFP+ 10Gb/s PCIe 2.0 x8 Server Adapter

Product Description

The Dell NHW94, based on the Intel X520-DA2 controller, is a high-performance dual-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet network adapter designed for server environments. It provides two SFP+ (Small Form-factor Pluggable Plus) ports, which are standard interfaces for 10GbE fiber optic transceivers. This allows for flexible network configurations using various types of fiber optic cabling (e.g., multimode or single-mode) to connect servers to switches or other network infrastructure over significant distances. The adapter utilizes the PCIe 2.0 x8 interface, offering ample bandwidth to support the full throughput of both 10 Gb/s ports simultaneously. The PCIe 2.0 standard provides 4 GB/s of bidirectional bandwidth per lane, and the x8 slot configuration ensures that the adapter is not a bottleneck for network traffic. This makes it suitable for demanding applications such as high-performance computing clusters, data center virtualization, storage area networks (SANs), and high-frequency trading platforms where low latency and high throughput are critical. As a server-grade adapter, the Dell NHW94 is built for reliability and performance. It typically supports advanced networking features such as TCP/IP offload, jumbo frames, and potentially features like Link Aggregation and Failover for increased network resilience and bandwidth utilization. The use of SFP+ ports means that the specific type of transceiver (e.g., SR for short reach, LR for long reach) must be chosen based on the required distance and fiber type, offering significant deployment flexibility.